The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

[Simon Boccanegra]

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Power-hungry Macbeth (Denzel Washington) sets his sights on the Scottish throne after receiving a prophecy from three witches (Kathryn Hunter). With Frances McDormand, Bertie Carvel, Alex Hassell, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling, and Brendan Gleeson.

Joel Coen's first movie without brother Ethan (who, at least for now, has taken a leave from filmmaking). It's one I almost don't want the responsibility of starting the thread for, because I wanted to like it more than I did. In the past, when the Coens adapted existing properties, even when they took a very faithful approach (True Grit), they put a strongly personal sensibility into their movies. This is a stately, reverent recitation, every development as inevitable as the stations of the cross. We know exactly what’s coming next, and the actors perform as if they know what’s coming next. Only fleetingly (as in the murders of Macduff’s wife and son, played with real terror by Moses Ingram and Ethan Hutchinson, respectively) is there a feeling that these events are happening for the first time to the people we’re watching. More often, these are actors delivering ancient greatness, on best behavior and in awe of the occasion.

The MVP is cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel (who shot Inside Llewyn Davis and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), working in misty black and white that pays homage to German Expressionism. The film is shot in the boxy Academy ratio, mostly on soundstages. Were it not for recognizable present-day faces, we might be persuaded this is an early sound film. It looks great. I had expected the performances to count for more, but except for those named above and Alex Hassell as a complex, not entirely clarified Ross, only Kathryn Hunter comes through. Her single contorting witch, whose reflection on water makes her appear a trio, is a searing, grotesque turn. As Macbeth, Denzel Washington does not entirely subdue his tendency to preen, and his Shakespearean recitation is soft-edged and monotonous. Frances McDormand's Lady is disappointing—I'm a fan, and this is the closest I’ve seen her come to blandness.

It’s a film made with unmistakable care and craft, but I cannot lie about my experience of seeing it: I was eager for it to reach its conclusion. It reminded me of the feeling I have when I'm in the theater seeing a repertory work competently done: the familiar words and gestures, not much inspiration.

I will be giving this a second look, with hope that it lands better, when its streaming date arrives imminently. Reviews are overwhelmingly positive, so perhaps it's just me.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Simon Boccanegra

[StatisticalOutlier]

Here's a perspective from a dumdum.  I've never read Shakespeare, so I have no "ear" for the dialogue.  And speaking of ears, I'm hard of hearing and use caption devices at movies to fill in the gaps.  So Shakespeare would seem to be a tall order, but anything in black and white creates a rebuttable presumption that I'm going to see it, plus I'm a Coen fan, and I'm adventurous in my moviegoing.

Further tipping the scale was remembering seeing Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and understanding it, and I saw The Merchant of Venice at that famous Shakespeare place in Staunton, Virginia, and managed to follow that too.   I'm not hopeless. 

So I gave this Macbeth a shot, and I failed miserably by any measure other than sitting in a nice big theater enjoying the visuals.  For some reason I didn't consult the Cliffs Notes to get a little familiar with the plot, which I've been known to do with non-Shakespeare movies.  That was a mistake, although my understanding is that the plot was changed up because the two leads were much older than they are in Shakespeare's version. 

The captions (which I had to be almost glued to) made it possible to know what the words being spoken were, but I couldn't process them from Shakespeare to English fast enough to be able to understand what was being said.

All of this is obviously on me, and no fault of the movie.  But I thought I'd throw it out there, because if I'd read what I just wrote when deciding whether to see it, it would have helped me make a more informed decision. 

On 1/11/2022 at 12:25 AM, Simon Boccanegra said:

I will be giving this a second look, with hope that it lands better, when its streaming date arrives imminently. Reviews are overwhelmingly positive, so perhaps it's just me.

I haven't gathered actual data or anything, but I'm starting to get the feeling that movies about movies often get better reviews than I think is warranted.  Like the reviewers enjoy them more because they're about something they love, or maybe they're reacting as insiders, or I don't know...it's just an impression that I've gotten.  And now I'm thinking that there may be a similar effect with movies about the theater.  I saw the Japanese movie Drive My Car, and a big chunk of its three-hour runtime was taken up by the characters working on a performance of Uncle Vanya.  It's getting rave reviews, and I wonder if the theater angle is contributing to that. 

Of course Macbeth doesn't have a theater angle--it is theater.  But I wonder if this imaginatively filmed play with a good pedigree is getting graded on a curve.

 

[Rickster]

I agree this was a disappointment, and I have a fair amount of exposure to Shakespeare on stage and film, including Denzel’s previous effort in Branagh’s “Much Ado About Nothing”, about 25 years ago. As striking as the production design and cinematography are ( and it probably is worth seeing just for this), I think they get in the way of communicating the play to the audience. The play and performances get steamrolled.

As a big fan of Denzel, I found his performance very flat for about 2/3 of the movie. It got a bit better, but by then it was too late. It was almost like he was sleepwalking instead of Lady Macbeth.

[Spartan Girl]

Oh good I’m not the only one that didn’t like this. It wasn’t because of Denzel—he did fine—I just don’t like either of the Coens or their style. 

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 1/11/2022 at 12:25 AM, Simon Boccanegra said:

More often, these are actors delivering ancient greatness, on best behavior and in awe of the occasion.

A poster on the TCM forums said, "Shakespeare in Coen's hands is a glorious burden where it should be a joy, despite the dispicable [sic] world that Macbeth creates around him." 

https://forums.tcm.com/topic/269387-the-tragedy-of-macbeth-denzel-washington-frances-mcdormand/?do=findComment&comment=2511825

[Bill1978]

On 1/14/2022 at 3:20 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

The captions (which I had to be almost glued to) made it possible to know what the words being spoken were, but I couldn't process them from Shakespeare to English fast enough to be able to understand what was being said.

Even though I've studied and performed Shakespeare during my high school years, I confess I still need subtitles on to understand what is beind said in a Shakespeare movie. For some reason reading Shakespeare is easier for me than listening to it. Having said that, I adored Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet because while I may not have understood much of the dialogue (saw it in the cinema), the visuals, acting, music helped me understand the plot. Sounds like adapatation may have to wait for home viewing and for when I'm really in the mood for some Shakespeare. Which is a shame cause I have a soft spot for the Macbeth play/

[Simon Boccanegra]

I gave this another look via Apple TV and felt about the same re: its strengths and weaknesses. It has a striking look. I like some of the visual flourishes, such as Lady Macbeth releasing the burning letter and letting the wind carry it into the (deliberately artificial-looking) night sky, where it blends in with the stars. I made note of the same excellent supporting performances: Kathryn Hunter above all, Alex Hassell, Moses Ingram.

But again, neither lead knocked me out, and @Rickster is right on target about Denzel Washington. I can't figure out what he and Joel Coen were going for here. He underplays the first two thirds of the role (at times it's as if he's feeling out the sound of the words privately) and then in the last third, he's strutting around and hollering as if it's a Medieval Training Day. A shift there makes sense, in that the character has given way to desperation and madness by that point, but his contrast is too extreme, in my opinion. 

Comparing it with the 2015 film, also very high-style, I liked the look of the new one more and the drama of the earlier one more. Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard have a lot of sexual chemistry, and the director (Justin Kurzel) pursues that thread with them. Washington and McDormand play the characters as though they’re way beyond such things. They are an older couple who long ago got used to each other. Even their murderous plotting is matter-of-fact. Fassbender and Cotillard can still surprise each other.

But with respect to the 2015 one (presently on HBO Max), the subtitles are really advisable. Lots of quirky regional accents and unorthodox delivery. 

[Dr.OO7]

I took my father to see this yesterday (he's a huge Shakespeare fan and even at 82, can still remember much of the dialogue to most of his plays, having studied them in English class).

I have mixed feelings, but that's because Macbeth was never one of my favorite plays to begin with--much too dark and grim for my taste. And the cinematography reflected that. I can't believe how bleak and dark it was. I felt like I was straining my eyes to see much of the action. 

That written, overall, I thought it was excellent.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Broadway version this spring.

[Browncoat]

I saw this last night, and overall, I thought it was really well done.  The cinematography was gorgeous, and I really loved the imagery/metaphor with the ravens and also how the scenery started out so wide open and ended up in a tiny cramped place.

Initially, I wasn't sure how I felt about the weird sisters being all rolled into one, but when they stood in front of the pond with that reflection, I immediately loved it.  I did have to look up the actress on IMDB, and was surprised to find out she was Mrs. Figg from Harry Potter!  Ditto Malcolm -- Dudley Dursley!  I didn't recognize that actor's name, either.

I do think, though, that you need to have more than just a passing familiarity with the original play.  Coen really truncated the story quite a lot, and maybe relied a little too much on some of the metaphor at times.  With all the dripping and knocking noises, I felt it was more like "The Tell-Tale Heart" than "Macbeth".  Even with all that, Macbeth's descent into madness seemed a little abrupt. 

Also, while I generally loved the ravens, that isn't how they sound in real life.  Filmmakers seem to struggle with the actual sounds that actual birds make.

 

[Simon Boccanegra]

16 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Initially, I wasn't sure how I felt about the weird sisters being all rolled into one, but when they stood in front of the pond with that reflection, I immediately loved it.  I did have to look up the actress on IMDB, and was surprised to find out she was Mrs. Figg from Harry Potter!  Ditto Malcolm -- Dudley Dursley!  I didn't recognize that actor's name, either.

Harry Melling (Dudley/Malcolm) had had a memorable role in Joel and Ethan Coen's previous movie, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. In the third of the six stories, he played a limbless orator who is carted from town to town in the Old West by an impresario (Liam Neeson) to deliver dramatic readings of scripture and poetry. The Coens always have tended to bring back actors they like, so here he was again in Tragedy of Macbeth, this time with arms and legs.

I don't know how I missed Kathryn Hunter as Mrs. Figg when I saw the HP movie she was in. That voice is so distinctive. She was most familiar to me from a Mike Leigh movie, All or Nothing. She had a long scene there as a talkative Frenchwoman who's a passenger of one of the main characters, a cab driver played by Timothy Spall (another Harry Potter alum). Leigh talked recently about how he had to cajole her a bit to be in All or Nothing. She had been in a few movies in the '90s, but she preferred the stage.

Edited February 10, 2022 by Simon Boccanegra